*** 6. Gutter Chapel ***
It was exciting and probably necessary to get them back on track, so Cumshot agreed to have a look at the lone mutant's cave.
Whoever had written the notice had made it clear that this job was for outsiders only, which had Xyz rant about the cowardice of Neons for a while. Cumshot only grinned and flexed his arm with the wavy tatts, making Xyz grumble in resignation.
Far out in the jungle where the trees grew denser and denser, the punks finally came across a hole in the ground.
Cumshot frowned. "Huh? How do we even get down there? No one said anything to us about climbing."
"Yo," Dumbfuck said. "A rope. And it's already tied to a stem."
"That's really fucking convenient. Guess we weren't the first to try or luck here, but what does it say that the rope is still there? They didn't get out alive."
Xyz grabbed the rope and threw one end down the hole. It reached to the bottom easily. "Yeah, but they were probably not two freaks and a guy with skin armor. If the mutant goes crazy, I tank the hits, you keep it blind and Dumbfuck beats it to a pulp."
"That's the obvious plan," Cumshot said. "Here's hoping it works."
Something rattled in the bushes. Something big.
Everybody froze. Was the mutant outdoors? Fog would be less effective, since the creature's motion was less restricted in the open. If they didn't see it coming, it might not go for Xyz first.
Worst of all, it could push one of them in the hole to have less to deal with. They were horribly fucked.
Cumshot was about to shout orders to run back to safety when he spotted a bushel of olive hair.
"Um... E? Is that you?"
"Yo," the boy said and came forward from the foliage. "I... I wasn't trying to spy, but... I saw you leave and... I hadn't looked at Dumbfuck much today... and I wasn't sure if you'd leave for a long time... and..."
"You spied on us!"
"No, n-no? I just wanted to see Dumbfuck again. Sorry."
"Aww," said the slave.
"Anyway," Cumshot said and stepped up to the stalker. "You fucked up. Run back home and don't do this again if you ever want a chance to lick our slaves' ass again."
"Yeah... sorry, I didn't mean it. I just want to be a trash punk like you one day."
Cumshot shoved the boy back into the bushes. "Well you ain't one yet. Now fuck off."
They waited until E's steps were out of hearing range. The slender punk turned to his friends with a grin. "I just tagged the bitch. Hope he finds his way to Illusion, but it'll probably be years till then."
"Now," Dumbfuck said. "Are we getting down there or what?"
The cave was oddly spacious, clearly dug into the moist ground by human machines. Had it been a shallow mine?
This time, they had a flashlight. It was a tiny one, held by Cumshot, but it had taken all their bottle caps. They really needed this money to keep going toward better missions.
Eventually the boys reached the main chamber – low ceiling, round walls, dry ground. Thick, natural pillars supported the weight of the rocks above.
"See anything?" Xyz whispered.
"Nah. Wait, is that heap... the mutant?"
There was a pile of something. Possibly flesh. They got closer.
"Ha!" shouted a voice from behind.
The punks whipped around to face a phaser, held by a man in a loincloth at the entrance. Two more joined him, wielding powerful flashlights that blinded Cumshot.
"Finally," the man said. "Some stupid bitches fell for our... Wait, is that a freak? Fuck, do it now!"
The men not carrying a weapon closed in and two more jumped out from behind pillars, aiming phaser's too. This was an ambush. But for what?
Collars glistened in their hands.
"They're slavers!" Cumshot shouted to his friends.
"Yes we are," said the man at the entrance. "Now hold still or you might lose a leg. Brings down your auction price but I'm willing to risk it."
"Get down," Cumshot said and generated dense, dark fog. It shot from his skin like an explosion. Xyz raced right at the confused slavers while the muscle brute took to the air instead. With superhuman leg muscles he rose and bounced off the ceiling with his hands to bring his full weight down on an armed man with great force.
Multiple bones cracked and Cumshot was willing to bet none of them belonged to Dumbfuck.
Seconds later, his own vision was blocked but he kept going, filling the whole space with impenetrable smoke. Phaser fire sizzled through the air, but Cumshot had already crawled behind a pillar.
He hopped over to the next one, closing in on the entrance. An unknown man screamed in pain, then his sound was suddenly cut off.
More phaser fire.
"Ah, fuck!" said an unfamiliar voice. "You shot me. You fucking idiot. My leg, my-"
The voice stopped as punches from its general direction set in.
"Wait!" yelled the first slaver from the entrance. "I surrender. Stop fighting. I'll give you money. Just stop it."
Cumshot stayed hidden, but quickly dissipated the roomful of mist.
The slaver found himself alone, face to face with Xyz. "Okay..." he said. "You won. I'll just go... take the stuff here. Okay? ...bye."
He ran for the exit.
Xyz looked over as Cumshot emerged for his spot. The thin punk only shrugged.
"Would have been fun to tag him," Cumshot said. "But he wouldn't have gone to Illusion, right? Maybe if we can figure out a way of making people do that."
"Yo," Dumbfuck said. "He lied. There's nothing here except the collars and the phasers."
"Can't use the phaser's," Xyz said. "I tried one. They're gene bound. Useless to anyone but the owner... or ex-owner now."
"Fuck. But hey," Cumshot said, "maybe the collars are useful."
"You want to become a slaver?" Xyz asked.
"Probably not, but we can at least put these on someone. Oh, the bag they came in. Convenient."
Back on the side road leading to the major path between cities, the punks ran into a duo of boys.
"Yo," the kids said. "Trash punks?"
"Yeah we are," Cumshot said.
"And freaks!?"
"Sure am," the punk said and grinned. "Impressed? Wanna fuck?"
"Yeah," said one boy, "but gotta piss first."
"Me too," said the other.
Xyz dropped to his knees in the dust. "No need to turn around boys."
While the kids were busy filling Xyz' mouth with yellow juice, Cumshot whispered his plan to the brute.
Then they sex began and Dumbfuck was doomed to finger himself while the other punks got their holes stuffed by extremely enthusiastic boys.
The kids were longtime friends and knew how to sync their orgasms so they'd fill both punk holes at the same time. It was a sign of true friendship, but also hilarious considering Cumshot's plan.
The moment they groaned in orgasmic bliss, Dumbfuck snapped a collar on each boy's neck.
As the dicks slipped out, Cumshot pulled himself up. "All right bitches, you are... oh, right."
The kids collapsed as the drug kicked in. Each collar injected a dose to make them docile and confused upon locking, so new slaves wouldn't make trouble until they could be handled.
Except, these ones didn't stay collapsed. The duo spasmed and clutched at the collar in a panic. After a second Cumshot understood.
They were getting brutally choked for a few seconds, with torturous electroshocks in between the air blockade.
"Oops," Cumshot said. "Looks like those collars were somehow already bound to the slaver guy. Uh... what do we do now?"
"We can't bring them to the city," Xyz said. "NewLaw would arrest us for illegal enslavement."
The suffering was hard to watch but also pretty hot. Those two boys were absolutely wrecked.
"Just... leave them?" Dumbfuck asked.
Xyz shrugged. "If they'd be found with collars and no chastity, they'd probably be freed, but since they're already bound to an owner... technically..."
The Buster punk looked at the struggling, miserable, shocked, whimpering boys with a grin. "...technically they are slaves now. I bet if anyone finds them they can take them to an auction house and claim them unless the owner shows up. I bet he won't."
"Do we need more slaves?" Dumbfuck said. "Not that I'm afraid of being replaced, but they'd be more mouths to feed. Plus, can we afford the re-binding?"
"Good point," Cumshot said. "We leave them and some lucky guy will get new slaves."
Only one question remained: what to do with the other two collars now that enslaving people was apparently more trouble than expected?
The plan was kind of crazy, but they needed money.
Cumshot had decided they should get their hands on drugs and sell them. This time for real. Even if they were unsuccessful, they could at least use the drugs to incapacitate the rob people.
Looking for a dealer and stealing from him was a problem because the punks were still strangers and didn't know where to look.
But there was one place, known to produce all drugs for the area – Gutter Chapel.
And with the collars, they had the perfect way in.
Cumshot and Xyz slapped the collars on themselves, having made absolutely sure to block the locking mechanism. Before they descended into Exocage's structure, the boys removed their dick pouches.
With nothing but the collars and the chastity devices, the three looked like totally ordinary slaves. The two pairs of black eyes may have caused a few looks, but freak slaves weren't unheard of.
Cumshot's heart pounded like crazy as he descended the narrow metal stairs. They were going to break into a lair of major drug creation. The risk was substantial.
But if it went off without a hitch – which it totally would – they were basically set for life. Or at least for long enough to travel far, far away.
They made it through the hanging settlement, then to the halfway station, then deeper than ever before.
The hole became less wide and the smoke pillar separated into narrow, dense columns as the factories underneath became visible where ore was molten into bars out in the open.
The hole's bottom was a network of jutting metal creations and smooth stone footpaths. Pretty much no free men were to be seen, everything operated by dozens of Exocage prisoners and about half as many slaves.
"Keep your heads down," Cumshot said. "Let's find the entrance."
After ten minutes of roaming the hot area they didn't know where else to look. The bottom was sizable but constrained to the hole. Once they had made it across and rounded the factories, there was no building they could have misses.
Cumshot and Dumbfuck stayed in the background while the non-freak talked to the locals. He returned from his conversation with a prisoner.
"Yo," Xyz started. "I know how to get into Gutter Chapel. They don't exactly like visitors, though. The entrance is in a mine shaft. Come on."
All three climbed down a ladder into even warmer territory. The mineshaft didn't only lead to ore deposits but also Exocage's power generators, which produced heat.
Once at the bottom, Xyz led them left, left, down, right, down, right.
Two Jolly guards napped at the entrance. One more was awake but only barely so.
Since Cumshot didn't know if slaves could just enter – but he doubted it – he produced smoke matching the one running along the tunnel ceiling, but much, much denser.
With a puff of fog, the punks slipped by the guards who only saw an unusually thick factory gust.
Inside the tunnel, the punks ran into more guards but since they were past the entrance everybody assumed they had a reason for being there.
Then the boys arrived in a hall – half natural cave, half dug into the stone.
"Wow," Dumbfuck said. "Never thought there'd be so many Jolly."
"Yeah," Cumshot said. "I'm pretty sure they took over the show here. Gotta be twenty or so, just in this room."
The Jolly and the few non-scavengers worked on several mechanical projects, but the majority was busy turning sacks of herbs into powder by adding various chemicals in a complex process.
"Bingo," Xyz said.
"Not quite," Cumshot said. "We need to find the deposit."
Sneaking in farther, the punks saw more people, most of them Jolly gang members.
Before long, they ran into a pile of drug packs and filled three bags with them. It amounted to a third of the cave's content. Those drugs were hard to come by.
As quickly, but inconspicuously as possible the trash punks made for the exit.
They got pretty far. Then there were shouts.
The Jolly didn't even try to figure out what was happening, they just jumped to the correct conclusion.
Since Exocage was an official settlement, it had a phaser suppression field. That field didn't work far underground. Shots sizzled through the air.
"Run!" Cumshot yelled and exuded as much smoke as he could. The path behind them was quickly blanketed as he raced through the tunnel like a comet, leaving behind a thick, gray cloud.
Xyz stayed at the back so his armor would catch stray fire. He was right behind Cumshot. The muscle brute went ahead, much faster than them, and crushed any unsuspecting Jolly who stepped in the way before they could realize they were under attack.
Cumshot tore his collar off as they ran past the entrance guards. They had been alerted by the noise behind them. One was brushed aside by the muscle freak and smacked into the cave wall. The other two stepped into Cumshot's path.
Instead of calling the strength freak back, the thin punk slapped his collar onto the guard who was just about to pull his phaser.
The man got a dose of tranquilizer as the lock clicked shut but was seconds later shaken by shocks and collapsed in agony. His ear shattering scream was cut off by the first choking of many.
Xyz stepped out of the fog and slapped his collar on the second guard. Now all three were incapacitated – and two would be slaves soon.
The punks hurried to catch up to Dumbfuck. The faux-slave with the real collar had waited for them because he didn't remember which way to go after the first bend.
They made it out with multiple armed Jolly in pursuit.
How far would they have to go up until phasers were suppressed? And how could they escape Exocage? What if the Jolly had vehicles to follow them?
Rushing through the structures on the hole's floor, Cumshot stopped making fog. If they weren't stirring up any more attention, maybe they could get lost in the crowd of slaves.
Unfortunately, the only way out was to ascend the stair-and-ladder constructs along the wall. They would be spotted.
"We have to be fast," Cumshot said. "But don't drop the bags, or it was all for nothing. Now... Go!"
The trio rushed up and was seen by Jolly guards within the first minute of flight. They weren't firing so the suppression was probably already working. If they caught up, though... it was all about who could push who down first. As long as Jolly kept coming the chances weren't looking too good.
Dumbfuck fell behind and grabbed a random hammer off the stair platform. He swung a few time at the ladder top with all his strength and the metal broke off.
One ladder dropped loudly to the floor below.
There were other path's up, it was a network. But it would slow the Jolly army down.
Before long, the boys had made it to the halfway station. Then they saw Jollies climbing down from above. They had been alerted somehow.
"We're trapped. Fuck. Okay, maybe if we threaten to destroy the drugs unless they let us go..."
"Yo! Punk bitches," yelled someone from the side, opposite the station.
Cumshot turned around and saw a thick guy with a skyblue braid grinning as he stood on the ore lift, leaning on one of its massive chains.
"Whisper!"
"Looks like you could use a lift."
The boys hurried onto the platform and the bartender kicked a switch on the metal floor. The lift rose with chains rattling.
"Yo, you saved us," Xyz said. "I can't believe... that was close."
"We owe you, man," Cumshot said.
Whisper waved it off. "The ruckus you made is going to attract NewLaw's attention. Maybe, if I play my cards right, they'll finally do something to clear out Gutter Chapel. Was a great place once. Had the potential to be a settlement at the bottom of the hole to complement the one on top."
"Before the Jolly gang took over?" Cumshot asked.
"Yeah, they turned it into their main lair, even more after someone attacked the small one in the jungle. Maybe I can turn the place around and make Gutter Chapel more than a bunch of tunnels."
"From bartender to mayor, huh?"
Whisper chuckled. "We'll see. Guess I have a third bar to open soon."
They arrived at the top, between thick steel beams that kept the top settlement together. All Jollies from the top were on their way down, thinking the drug thieves were still ascending through the ladder net.
The punks fled with their bounty.
Next up: traveling the big blue sea and fighting mutants. We're moving toward the grand finale.
Chapter 7: Mutant Island